If you watched Letters to Juliet in theaters earlier this year, you probably didn’t know who the guy opposite Amanda Seyfried was. That would be Christopher Egan. Now that he has shared the spotlight with Seyfried and Vanessa Redgrave, a film he did in 2009 called Crush has finally made it to DVD.
Egan plays Julian, a banned U.S. martial arts champion who is studying architecture at the University of Western Australia on a student visa. While there, he also gets a three month house-sitting job at a spectacular mansion in Perth, much to the annoyance of his girlfriend Clare (Brooke Harman) who was going to live with him. Soon after moving in, Julian is seduced by the mysterious and beautiful Anna (Emma Lung), and his life begins to unravel. His relationship starts falling apart; he loses a championship martial arts tournament match and his final university assignment goes missing. During a series of increasingly strange and dangerous events, he tries to end the relationship with Anna but Anna’s infatuation with him turns deadly.
This film is certainly not the most original film ever created; basically it’s a cross between Fatal Attaraction, The Haunting, Obsessed, and Twilight. It mixes the whole obsessed girlfriend angle with supernatural elements. Put them together and Crush is fairly predictable. It does have a nice twist, but it tries to be too many things at once, and that simply doesn’t work in the end.
The film has a good star pairing in Christopher Egan and Emma Lung. The decision to make Egan’s character an American seems out of place since he’s an Australian playing an American in Australia. Because of this, his American accent seems to go in and out. But other than that, his acting is great. Lung also is a capable actress, but she is just not a very menacing villain, when compared to other actresses in similar roles like Glenn Close. But the writing and lackluster dialogue is likely more to blame than Lung’s acting skills.
Crush tries to outsmart its audience, but it doesn’t work out too well. There is a nice twist to what we expect, but there has been other writers and directors who have done a better job with similar material than the people behind Crush here. You can’t really blame the acting, because it’s mostly solid. Christopher Egan fans might be curious enough to check it out.
The video included is available in widescreen color presented at the 1.78:1 aspect ratio, which is enhanced for 16:9 TVs. The quality is pretty much what you expect from a newer release DVD. No major problems here.
The audio included is available in basic English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound. There are subtitles available in Spanish as well. The dialogue and music come out loud and clear. So there are no major problems here either.
There are no extras for this DVD release.
Christopher Egan fans might enjoy this. Some supernatural fans might even consider renting Crush as well. But for everyone else, you’re better off skipping it.
Phase 4 Films presents Crush. Directed by John V. Soto and Jeffrey Gerritsen. Written by John V. Soto. Starring Christopher Egan, Emma Lung, Brooke Harman, Christian Clark, Jenna Lind, Kane Manera, and Elwyn Wdwards. Running time: 82 minutes. Rated . Released on DVD: July 13, 2010.
